About the Author

Julie Shigekuni is the author of three novels: A Bridge Between Us, Invisible Gardens, and Unending Nora. Her fiction has been translated into German, Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian. Shigekuni was a finalist for the Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award and the recipient of the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature. She has received a Henfield Award and an American Japanese Literary Award for her writing. Shigekuni received her B.A. from CUNY Hunter College and her M.F.A. from Sarah Lawrence College. She is director of the creative writing program and Development Director of an Asian American Studies program at the University of New Mexico.

About this Book

Four generations of Japanese American women make their home in a large house in San Francisco, united by the obligations of family and tradition and, perhaps, by love. In alternating chapters, the four women--Reiko, Rio, Tomoe, and Nomi Hito--speak with unflinching honesty about their lives, the secrets that have separated mother and daughter, and the fierce ties of intimacy that form an inextricable bridge between them.